Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Finance and Minister representing the Treasurer, Senator Cormann. Is the minister aware of any promises to return the budget to surplus more quickly than the government itself is planning? Can the minister advise the Senate of whether or not such promises are credible?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Canavan for that question. Yes, I am aware. The other day I was sitting quietly in my office working on ideas on how to continue the efforts to repair the budget mess that we have inherited from our predecessors, and who turned up on television? None other than opposition leader Mr Bill Shorten. What was Mr Bill Shorten promising to the Australian people? That not only would the Labor Party get the budget back to surplus; they would actually get the budget back to surplus sooner than the coalition.

This is Mr Shorten, who was a senior minister in the government that created the mess in the first place. This is Mr Shorten, who is opposing most of our sensible savings measures. This is Mr Shorten, who cannot even convince the Labor caucus to support the savings measures they themselves initiated and banked in the budget. This is Mr Shorten, who is telling us that big businesses generating more than $20 billion a year in revenue should continue to have tax cuts for their investment in research and development. The Labor Party under Prime Minister Gillard and Prime Minister Rudd said, 'That is not appropriate. We should not give a tax cut to businesses generating more than $20 billion in revenue a year.' Not Mr Shorten—Mr Shorten says, 'That's too hard.' We know that Senator Kim Carr, the senator for Pyongyang, rolled Mr Shorten in the Labor caucus. He rolled Mr Shorten in the Labor caucus.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Cormann, that is unparliamentary, so I would ask you to withdraw that reflection on Senator Carr.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I withdraw. We do know that the Labor senator for Victoria went into the Labor caucus and he rolled Mr Shorten on this particular Labor Party saving. We know that he has been proud to claim that in the past. We know that he has been sitting here in the chamber chuckling when we have made these assertions, because he knows it is true. Here we have got a Labor leader who was part of the people who created the mess and who is not doing anything to help us fix the mess. Here he is claiming that he going to bring the budget back to surplus. (Time expired)

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Will the minister advise the Senate of what budget savings are currently being held up in the Senate?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What I can advise Senator Canavan and the Senate is that nearly $6 billion in budget savings are blocked right now by the Labor Party. They are savings that Labor themselves initiated and banked in their last budget. They never had what it took to legislate their own savings measures to the parliament and here they are now telling us that—

Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They are attacks on the poor. That is what they are. You are just attacking the poor in this country.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Cameron.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

not only are they going to bring the budget back to surplus but they are also going to bring the budget back to surplus sooner than the coalition, without any detail whatsoever on where Mr Shorten is going to cut deeper or where he is going to increase taxes. That is because, given Mr Shorten's track record so far, he is actually starting from way behind. Eventually it will dawn on Mr Shorten that if he wants to make these sorts of promises, the budget is not actually a magic pudding. If you do not want to support our savings, if you do not want to support our revenue measures and if you want to deliver a surplus more quickly, you have got to tell us how. (Time expired)

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Will the minister inform the Senate why it remains so important to repair the budget?

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Budget repair is critically important if we are to protect our living standards, if we are to build opportunity and prosperity for the future and if we want to ensure that we do not reduce opportunities for our children and grandchildren. That is because the situation the Labor Party left behind—having inherited a strong budget position, a strong surplus and money in the bank and net interest payments on the back of a positive net-asset position—is a situation where every year now we have got to put our hands into the pockets of our children and grandchildren, forcing them to pay for our lifestyle today and forcing them to pay for a proportion of our recurrent expenditure year-on-year.

That is fundamentally unfair because what it means is that down the track our children and grandchildren would have to accept either lower services from government or higher taxes from government in order to pay for the budget mess and the debt and deficit disaster the Labor Party has left behind. On this side we are working very hard to sort this out in order to improve opportunities for our children and grandchildren. (Time expired)

Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.